Electronic messaging involves the transmission of electronic messages over computer networks, such as a local area network or the Internet. An electronic message may be a simple text message containing only ASCII, or it may be a complex message containing electronic files such as images, sounds, spreadsheets, etc. Electronic messaging is generally referred to as email, but it may also comprise other messaging technologies like instant messaging.
To send and receive electronic messages, electronic messaging clients are used. No matter which type of client is used, an electronic messaging client generally does at least the following tasks. It is able to show a list of all the messages in a user's Inbox by displaying information from message headers. The message header information often shows a user the address of each person who sent each message, the subject of each message, the time and date of each message, and the size of each message. The electronic messaging client also typically lets a user select a message header and read the body of the electronic message for that message header. Further, an electronic messaging client enables a user to create new messages and send them. In composing a message, a user typically is able to type in the email address of the recipient and the subject for the message, and then type the body of the message. Additionally, most clients permit a user to add attachments to messages that the user sends and to also save attachments from messages the user receives.
Specifically, an attachment is often an electronic file that can accompany an electronic mail message. The attachment can often be of any file format, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, sound files, images, and other software. The attachment is often not simply text, but binary code. Otherwise, the attachment text could simply be added in the body of the message by the user creating the message. Accordingly, the original binary file structure of the attachment is often converted by an electronic messaging transport service, such as e-mail or Instant Messaging (IM), into a file version that only contains text characters so that the file may be transmitted over the Internet.
After an electronic mail with an attachment is received by an electronic messaging client, the client recognizes the type of attachment encoding and converts the attached file back to its binary form. To access this binary file, the recipient often needs an application installed on the recipient's computer that can execute or access that particular type of file. Often, in a Microsoft® Windows® environment, the application that is needed to execute the binary file is already associated (through an operating system association) with the filename extension of the binary file, so that a user's command to open the binary file will cause the application to access the binary file.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating one method of handling attachments received in an e-mail. In block 105, an e-mail recipient operates a program, such as Microsoft® Outlook®, to receive an e-mail message that includes an attached file. Upon receiving this e-mail, the user has options of saving (decision block 110) or opening (decision block 120) the attachment. If the recipient decides to save the attachment, typically, the recipient manually selects a “save” option button from an options menu, followed by optionally specifying a particular directory in which the attachment is to be saved. This manual step is illustrated in block 115.
If the recipient decides to open the attachment, as determined in decision block 120, the recipient has to, typically, double-click on the attachment icon associated with the e-mail in the Microsoft® Outlook® mail program (illustrated in block 130). If an association is already present, the appropriate application program is launched, and the contents of the attachment are displayed in the launched application program (block 135). As one example of this step of block 135, double-clicking on an attachment that is a document associated with Microsoft® Word will cause Microsoft® Word to be launched, and the text of the attachment will be displayed inside a display window of the Microsoft® Word program.
Alternatively, in block 120, if the recipient decides to ignore the attachment momentarily, decision block 125 illustrates a step wherein the user decides to look at the attachment at a later date by closing the message or may leave the message open and return to it later.
In summary, electronic messaging clients, such as the Microsoft® Outlook® mail program, generally display and manage attachments in a similar manner. As explained above, to access an attachment in a received email message, a recipient typically has to know that a button, icon, or other element, needs to be selected followed by numerous other steps that may be involved in opening the attachment. While these traditional methods may be adequate for knowledgeable or experienced users of electronic mail clients or programs, a more straight forward and less arcane management structure is desired. Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.